


Rush From the Deep

by Requiem



Category: Star Wars Sequel Trilogy
Genre: Alternate Universe - Pacific Rim Fusion, Canon-Typical Violence, Hurt/Comfort, Injury, M/M, POV Finn (Star Wars), Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder - PTSD
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-09-06
Updated: 2020-09-06
Packaged: 2021-03-06 20:15:18
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 7,597
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/26044840
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Requiem/pseuds/Requiem
Summary: It's been five years since Finn left the Ilum Shatterdome and the First Order behind. He's been finding work wherever he can, mostly construction on the Walls of Life that are springing up across the globe. The last thing he expects is for Leia Organa, one of the first ever jaeger pilots, to walk onto the site one day and single him out for recruitment.
Relationships: Poe Dameron/Finn
Comments: 8
Kudos: 43
Collections: Alternate Universe Exchange 2020





	Rush From the Deep

**Author's Note:**

  * For [smaragdbird](https://archiveofourown.org/users/smaragdbird/gifts).



Finn could see the whole bay from the top of the wall. It was calm now, but every time he looked out over a stretch of open water, he couldn't help but picture a kaiju rising from the depths of the ocean and breaking the surface, water running off its body in waves. He could still hear the shatterdome sirens that would go off to mark an incursion, feel the sudden rush of bodies as pilots, technicians, medics, and ground crew made for their stations. But all that was a long way behind him now.

Five years ago, he'd been part of the First Order jaeger squad that had taken down the Category III kaiju Kowakian. It'd been a hard-won battle, something Finn knew only all too well, forced to bring his jaeger to shore alone after his co-pilot Slip had been torn out of the conn-pod. He'd never quite settled back into the Drift after that, the memory of his last connection being ripped apart replaying every time he tried to form a neural handshake with another pilot. He'd been demoted to janitorial staff after six months of failures, and had left the Ilum Shatterdome the month after, the corridors of the place he'd spent nearly his whole life in now coloured by a tragedy few could understand the depth of.

He still had the dreams, would still wake up in the dead of night with tears on his cheeks and a scream in his throat, but at least he no longer lost his sense of who he was, didn’t look down and wonder whose hands those were, or look up and not recognise where he was. Baby steps.

When the shift supervisor called him off the wall before it was time for his crew to break for lunch, Finn thought he was done for; nothing good ever came of being singled out. Never in his life would he imagine that he'd open the door to the office and come face to face with the legendary Leia Organa, once a pilot of the just-as-legendary Millennium Falcon; to date, still the jaeger with the most kills. And never _ever_ in his life would he imagine that she would be here for _him_.

"You're Finn?" She ran an appraising gaze over him that was so quick and sharp Finn felt like she'd learned everything there was to know about him from just that one look.

"Y-yes ma'am," he managed to stutter out after a few false starts in which nothing came out of his mouth.

"Marshal Leia Organa of the D'Qar Shatterdome. I don't have much time, so I'll get straight to the point: the Rebel Alliance has jaegers in need of pilots. You know how to pilot. I'd like you to join us."

Finn had to consciously prevent his jaw from dropping. "I…retired, ma'am."

"And I'm asking if you'll come out of retirement for us. Raw recruits, they're a dime a dozen, but pilots with experience? We're going to need all of those we can get."

Her phrasing made Finn pause. "Why, ma'am? If I can ask."

"You haven't heard?"

"We don't get much news out here."

"The Jaeger Program is going private. And since most shatterdomes can't stay open without government funding, they're closing down. Jaegers are being decommissioned left and right, and almost every training program across the globe has been scrapped. We're all that's left, really. Well, us and the First Order." Marshal Organa's lip curled as she said the name.

Until Finn had left Ilum, he'd had no idea how many people actively despised the First Order; it was nothing like the clips of parades and cheering crowds that had played on the cafeteria screens.

"I used to work for the First Order," he said cautiously. The marshal had to have known if she knew he used to be a jaeger pilot, but it seemed safer to get it out into the open sooner rather than later.

"And have _they_ come looking for you?"

Finn shook his head when it became apparent that Marshal Organa was waiting for an answer.

"And they won't," she continued. "They value numbers over experience. But I don't."

A gust of wind buffeted the office door, and Finn looked out the window in time to see a helicopter landing outside.

"That's my ride," the marshal said. "This is a one-time offer, and I need you to decide now. Come with me to D'Qar. We need you, and…" she looked him up and down again, "I have a feeling you need us."

Finn thought of the grungy dormitory he shared with tens of other workers, the bed too small to properly stretch out on, the mattress too hard and lumpy to ever really get a good night's sleep; the long hours and perilous working conditions for barely enough rations to fill his stomach every day. There'd also been whispers of doubt amongst the crew about how the wall would ever be able to hold back a kaiju, and even quieter whispers about a wall that had already been breached, the news quickly swept under the rug. All this work…it could well be for nothing.

"Let me get my bag."

-

The D'Qar Shatterdome was not what Finn had been expecting. Ilum had been a long rectangular structure jutting out from the mainland, tens of bays containing near-identical jaegers stacked in neat rows and columns. Here, there were only five jaegers in the bay, and from what Finn had seen out the window as the helicopter had approached the shatterdome, the other bays were dark and closed off.

Each of the jaegers had a unique design, something Finn had only ever seen on news reports of kaiju attacks outside Ilum's range of operation. And they were _colourful_. There were reds, blues, greens, and yellows, intricate patterns and bright splashes that gave each jaeger a life of its own even though they were all standing motionless on their lift platforms.

But the most beautiful of all, to Finn's eyes, was a sleek black jaeger striped with bold orange. Though her design wasn't the newest, she was by far the shiniest of all jaegers in the bay, as if someone had only recently touched up her paint job.

Her name had been spray painted onto the front of her lift platform, but Finn had to forego finding out what it was in favour of catching up to Marshal Organa, who hadn't stopped her brisk walk towards the doors of the elevator that would take them to the lower levels of the shatterdome.

Once they were in the elevator, the marshal handed Finn a tablet containing his schedule and a welcome pack to help him familiarise himself with the layout and routine of the shatterdome.

"I'll have someone show you to your quarters and give you a tour, but you might find it an interesting read anyway. It's my understanding that Ilum doesn't have much in the way of outside media."

Before Finn could answer her, the doors to the elevator opened, revealing a man dressed in a technician's coveralls. He broke out into a broad smile upon seeing them, first turning his warm brown eyes to Finn like they were old friends reunited again, then to Marshal Organa.

"Marshal!" the man excitedly exclaimed, practically bouncing on his toes. "Is this him?"

"Poe, at least let the poor man get out of the elevator first," the marshal admonished. Poe stepped to the side to let her and Finn out, and when the doors closed behind them, Marshal Organa said, "Yes, Poe, this is Finn. Finn, this is Ranger Poe Dameron, believe it or not."

"It's so good to finally meet you." Poe seized Finn's hand with both of his and shook it enthusiastically while Finn could only stand there, stunned. Why was Poe acting like he'd been waiting for Finn's arrival? And what sort of ranger went around the base wearing a technician's uniform? That sort of behaviour would never have flown at Ilum.

"I hope you haven't been bothering the technicians again," Marshal Organa said drily as she eyed Poe's attire.

"I was in the workshop tinkering with BB-8 when I heard you'd arrived. I didn't have enough time to change."

"Well, since Finn's moving into the empty room across from yours, why don't you show him the way? And get yourself cleaned up too, while you're at it."

Marshal Organa left Finn with Poe, who was only all too happy to give Finn a guided tour of every room in the shatterdome. By the time they came to a stop in the room that was supposedly Finn's, his head was brimming with more information about the construction and history of the 'dome than he was sure he would ever need to know.

"If you need anything, I'm right across the hall." Poe pointed his thumb over his shoulder at the door Finn could see behind him.

"Just one more thing," Finn said as Poe made to leave. "What did you mean when you said it was good to 'finally' meet me?"

"I've seen recordings of all your fights. When I heard that Marshal Organa needed more pilots, I had her track you down. Now that you're finally here, it's gonna be great, I know it is." Poe clapped Finn on the shoulder. "I'm really glad you're here, buddy."

He left Finn feeling more confused than before he'd answered Finn's question.

-

Meals were taken in the mess hall, there being only one in D'Qar compared to the three at Ilum that separated officers, rangers, and the rest of the 'dome workers. Here, Finn could see Marshal Organa deep in conversation with a group of people wearing various uniforms, while not far away, Poe—back in his ranger uniform—was laughing heartily with a table full of fellow pilots. Finn supposed he ought to go over and introduce himself since he was going to be one of them, but his hands grew sweaty around his tray at the thought of having to talk to so many people at once, so he left the mess hall, intending to eat in his quarters. He'd return the tray when he was done, of course.

The tablet with the map of the shatterdome was back on the table in Finn's quarters, and though it'd been easy enough to find the mess hall by following the signs and the flow of traffic, he couldn't remember his way back to the living quarters. He wasn't even on the right floor, but as he turned down a promising-looking corridor, instead of finding an elevator at the end, he found himself on the catwalk of one of the closed-off bays. And right in front of him was the hulking form of a jaeger, but not just any old jaeger.

"Is that…" he muttered to himself as he took a few tentative steps forward.

"Millennium Falcon," a voice from the shadows finished for him.

Finn nearly dropped his tray.

"Sorry, didn't mean to scare you." A half-empty cafeteria tray was pushed across the catwalk into the light before it was followed by a slight figure. "I'm Rey," said the young woman standing before Finn. She didn't hold out her hand, and made no attempt to hide the curious once-over she gave him.

"Are you eating up here by yourself?" Finn asked.

Rey shrugged. "I've only been here two weeks. Still haven't gotten used to being around so many people yet."

"I'm Finn. I just got in myself."

Rey sat back down under the protruding metal beams that had hidden her from sight, but didn't retreat all the way into the shadows. Finn took that as an invitation to sit next to her.

"She's retired now, but the technicians here still look after her," Rey said, looking up at Millennium Falcon as she resumed eating. "Word is, when the Jaeger Program was defunded, the government wanted to put her in a museum, but Marshal Organa and Captain Solo wouldn't let them take her."

"Good. She should be with people who care about her."

Rey hummed agreeably, and they lapsed into a comfortable silence.

"Are you a pilot?" Finn asked after a few minutes of quiet.

"So they tell me. You?"

"I used to be." Finn looked over at Millennium Falcon, at the scratches and acid burns the technicians hadn't covered up. "I retired too."

"Why'd you come back?"

"You know, I'm still not sure."

-

Finn's schedule had him reporting for training at 0600 the next morning, but when he got to the combat room, only Poe was there, stripped down to his uniform trousers and undershirt, twirling a quarterstaff with easy grace as his bare feet thudded across the mat. Poe finished his routine by pivoting and pointing the staff straight at Finn, as if he'd known Finn was there all along.

"There you are." Poe straightened up and inclined his head towards the pile of boots and clothes Finn could see by the side of the mat. "You can leave your things there. I'll get you a staff."

"Where's everyone else?" Finn asked as he deftly undid the buttons of his shirt, the motions of changing into and out of uniform quickly coming back to him.

"Asleep, probably. I wouldn't have pulled you out of bed so early either if we didn't have so much to go through today."

"But what about the other candidates?" Ilum used an algorithm to pre-determine Drift compatibility, but the numbers the program spat out were always tested with vigorous face-to-face training sessions. Finn had expected something similar here, had thought his first few days at D'Qar would be filled with endless match-ups in various scenarios.

"I don't need any other candidates. I've got you."

Understanding dawned on Finn. "You need a co-pilot."

Poe grinned. "I need a co-pilot." He threw a staff at Finn and dropped back into a ready stance.

From the first moment their staves met in mid-air to the end of each round where one or both of them would be lying on the mat trying to catch their breath, Finn knew that they were Drift compatible without needing an algorithm to tell him.

"How did you do it?" Finn asked breathlessly, flat on his back with Poe mirroring him not far away. "How did know we'd be Drift compatible when we've never even met before?"

"We won't know for sure until we get into the simulator, but like I said before, I've watched recordings of all your fights. I try to get through everyone's to stay on top of the latest techniques and kaiju abilities, but with you, it was like I knew what move you were going to make before you did it."

"How did you know which one was me?" First Order jaegers were identical save for serial numbers that would be too small to show up on any recording of a fight.

"Trust me, it wasn't easy. But when the marshal called me back, I knew who I wanted for my co-pilot. I went through all the First Order recordings to pinpoint exactly which fights you were in, then I asked the marshal to harass the First Order until they came up with a name. I thought we'd have to jump through all sorts of hoops to get them to let you go, but then I heard you'd already left…we spent weeks looking for you."

"The marshal called you back? Why did you leave?"

Poe rolled up to a sitting position, looking past Finn at the wall. "My last co-pilot left me. Packed up and walked away in the middle of the night without so much as a goodbye. That was about six years ago. I went through dozens of candidates after that, but they didn't stick. It was like there was a part of me that had gone missing that I couldn't fill with anything else. You uh…Kowakian, right?"

"Yeah. Slip—my co-pilot—we'd been friends a long time. I didn't see how I could keep going afterwards."

"But you're here now." Poe looked down at Finn, and their eyes met.

"I'm here."

They had a light breakfast, not stopping in the mess hall long enough to strike up conversation with anyone else, then headed for the simulation rooms. This time, they had an audience. Finn recognised Rey, who gave him a small wave, and some of the other pilots he'd seen Poe having dinner with the previous evening.

"Your last co-pilot," Finn asked as they helped each other into their drivesuits. "What was his name?"

"Ben. Uh, Solo."

"Solo? As in, _Han_ Solo?" The other half the Millennium Falcon team; Finn didn't even know they'd had a son.

"Yeah, but he and the marshal don't like to talk about it, so don't bring it up, okay?"

"Yeah, okay."

Finn could learn everything there was to know about Ben Solo anyway in the Drift. Poe shared with him memories of a pale, gangly, dark-haired boy running around a large garden with another boy who could be none other than Poe himself, aged nine or ten. They'd been close; Finn could feel the affection and protectiveness that Poe felt towards the other boy as clearly as if Finn had known Ben himself. It must have hurt, him disappearing into the night the way he had.

Finn tried to shield Poe from the memory of losing Slip, didn't want Poe to feel the same heart-wrenching pain he had, but it was as if Poe was standing right behind him in the conn-pod, arms around Finn's waist in a comforting hold and his chin gently resting on Finn's shoulder.

"It's alright," Poe whispered in his ear. "You're safe. Let it go."

Putting his trust in Poe's ability to hold him up, Finn let the memory wash over him.

-

"You said you didn't take on a new co-pilot after Ben left," Finn said to Poe when they were alone in the drivesuit room after the simulation had ended—a perfect score, but Finn could have predicted that from the way they'd been so in sync in the Drift. "What did you do afterwards?" Finn had access to Poe's memories, but no sense of time with which to put them in a coherent order.

"I went back to my roots. Started flying helicopters on supply runs, Jumphawks on jaeger drops. My mother was an aircraft pilot long before there were such things as jaeger pilots, and she taught me a thing or two."

Melancholic nostalgia squeezed Finn's chest; he'd seen Poe's mother in the Drift, felt her safe and loving embrace, and the shattering grief Poe had felt when news of her death had reached him.

"Hey." Poe's hand on his shoulder brought him back to the present. "Let's hit the showers."

The hot water was a balm on Finn's raw nerves. Alongside Poe's memories—mostly unhappy ones, as they were often the kind that were dredged up first in the Drift—he had to deal with his own being pulled to the surface from the dark recesses he'd tucked them into over the years. By the time he emerged from the steam to join Poe in getting dressed in the locker room, Finn could more or less separate Poe's memories from his own.

"Long time, huh?" Poe said off whatever expression Finn was wearing on his face. "For me, too."

"I'd almost forgotten what it was like," Finn admitted as he sat down on a bench. "The whole two-people-one-shared-consciousness thing."

"Like having two minds trying to drive your body at the same time."

"Yeah." Finn looked down at his hands, and when they resolutely stayed his hands and didn't shift into Poe's or Slip's, he felt steady enough to stand up and finish getting dressed. "What's next on the schedule?"

"We've got a few hours' break before lunch. First day in the sim room is the hardest, so we always leave time after training for the pilots to wind down."

"What do they usually do?"

Poe shrugged. "Some people need to sleep it off. Others treat the break like any other leisure time. How are you feeling?"

"Fine. Good." Less than a hundred percent, but Finn didn't think being apart from Poe would help with the feelings of dissociation. Better to have Poe in front of him to remind him they were separate people. "What do you do?"

"I usually work on my droid, BB-8, or watch the technicians work on Black One. Come on, I'll take you down to the workshop."

The workshop was tucked behind the jaeger bay, stacked from floor to ceiling with spare parts not just for the jaegers but also for various other pieces of equipment around the shatterdome. Out of the constant flow of technicians moving all over the place, hauling parts and equipment on trolleys and scramblers, a small white and orange figure came barrelling towards Finn and Poe. It came to an abrupt stop by Poe's feet, resolving into a round droid that beeped at him.

"Hey, buddy!" Poe exclaimed, going down to one knee to rub the top of the droid's…head. "This is Finn. Finn, this is BB-8."

BB-8 let off a series of trills and beeps in Finn's direction.

"Uh, it's nice to meet you," Finn said.

BB-8 beeped a few times then spun in a circle on the spot a few times.

"He's glad to meet you too," Poe said, getting to his feet.

"He understands me?"

"I've installed a few AI packages over the years, so I guess you could say he's more aware than the average droid. But yes, he understands what people say when they speak to him."

"What does he do?"

"He's a one-of-a-kind jaegermech droid. He's got his own socket in Black One, and he helps with field repairs and manual control as well as communications and navigation if our main systems go down for any reason. He's gotten me out of a few tight spots, haven't you, boy?" Poe smiled fondly down at BB-8, who beeped back at him.

"One of a kind? Why don't other jaegers have droids too, if they're so helpful?"

"Some have AIs that perform the same functions, but I've had BB-8 since before I became a jaeger pilot. I couldn't leave him behind."

BB-8 let out a rapid string of beeps and boops, then rolled out of the workshop.

"He says I should show you Black One," Poe translated. "Come on."

Out in the bay, Poe stopped before the black and orange jaeger Finn had been admiring the previous day.

"That's _your_ jaeger?" he breathed, unable to take his eyes off her striking figure.

"That's her. Isn't she a beauty?"

Finn could only nod in stunned agreement. "Black One?" he asked once he'd recovered his faculties.

"Old callsign. We can change her name if you feel strongly about it—"

"No, it's perfect. She's perfect."

Poe laughed. "Wait until you see her in the field. She's one of the only two Mark IVs here along with Blue Rapier over there"—he nodded at the blue and white jaeger next to Black One—"but she can hold her own alongside the Mark Vs easily enough."

"When do you think we'll be called up next?"

"Soon, if the predictions from the science lab are correct. But hopefully not too soon; we need more time to train together. The next incursion is supposed to be a quadruple event."

"Already?" It had taken nearly a decade for them to start seeing double events, then another before triple events began occurring. It'd only been six years since the first triple event had been recorded.

Poe shrugged. "So they say. Our scientists, at least. The First Order's scientists are singing to a completely different tune: they say we're likely to _stop_ seeing triple events soon. And of the two of us, they've got the fancier graphs and slideshow presentations, which is probably how they've managed to convince the world governments to stop funding the Jaeger Program and leave it to them. Whoever ends up being right, I think I'm going to prepare for the worst."

-

Finn's first week at D'Qar passed in a blur. It was so unlike his experience at Ilum and working on the Walls of Life, the distinction between ranks and positions so blurred it was hard to tell where the line was. Everyone treated each other like their equal, and though it was refreshing in some ways, in other ways it was overwhelming; years of habit told Finn to snap to attention and avert his gaze when speaking to a superior officer, something he had to fight against every time the marshal made a well-intentioned enquiry about how he was settling in or how his training was going.

When it all got to be too much, he could always sneak away to find Rey in Bay Three where Millennium Falcon stood watch over the empty space. Rey had been an orphan on the streets of Jakku, alone for most of her life, and understood Finn's need for a moment to get away from it all every now and again. They'd sit together in silence for a few hours, lost in their own thoughts, and Finn would leave feeling refreshed and ready to face the others again.

A week and a half after Finn's arrival at D'Qar, he was in the rangers' rec room watching Poe play a game of darts against Rey's co-pilot Jessika. On the TV was a news report of some conference in Crait that the Knights of Ren had been invited to stand guard at. They were an arm of the First Order, an elite group that piloted smaller single-pilot jaegers that were frequently contracted out to private individuals and organisations as security. The Rebel Alliance pilots didn't think much of them if the jeers from the group in front of the TV were anything to go by, and Finn had to admit that the First Order pilots didn't think much of them either, though no one at Ilum had dared say anything out loud.

Suddenly, the drone of the reporter was drowned out by sirens going off across the shatterdome that signified Breach activity had been detected.

"All pilots report to their jaegers." Marshal Organa paged them over the intercom, and everyone in the rec room immediately dropped what they were doing. "We have recorded the first quadruple event."

Poe reached out, and Finn unconsciously took his hand as they raced towards the Drivesuit Room. When they arrived, they were met with skeptical looks from the technicians—most of J-Tech knew who Finn was by now, and they also had to know that his training wasn't anywhere near complete yet—but a stern look from Poe had the technicians jumping to help him and Finn into their drivesuits with a quiet, "Yes, Ranger Dameron."

"Black One." Marshal Organa's voice came on over the comms just as they'd gotten situated in the cradles.

"Marshal, we're ready for this," Poe said with stubborn determination. He met Finn's eyes, and Finn nodded back firmly as flashes of their shared memories flickered past the forefront of his brain. They'd hit the simulators together almost every day since Finn's arrival, and forming a Drift connection with each other now felt like second nature.

"I know, I've seen your test scores," the marshal said. "I want you and Blue Rapier on Codename: Rathtar, it's the biggest of the four and I don't want any of you facing it alone. Sending you what information we've been able to obtain on it now."

"Yes, Marshal." With the neural bridge now completely formed, it was hard to tell whether Finn or Poe or both of them answered her.

 _Calibration complete_ , the computer announced, and the floor under the conn-pod opened to drop them down the shaft to meet the rest of Black One. Machine arms descended on all sides to secure them into place as BB-8 rose up from a lift platform behind them before settling into his own specially-made cradle.

Sunlight spilled into the bay as the roof above them opened to allow the Jumphawks to drop their tether cables and airlift the jaegers out one by one. Finn was privately glad that Black One was the first to depart, as deployment at Ilum had been much faster with its larger bays and smaller jaegers, and he wasn't sure he had the discipline any longer to patiently for his turn when so much adrenaline was running through his veins.

Poe smirked at him through the Drift. _Can't stand waiting myself,_ he told Finn. So maybe the impatience wasn't solely Finn's.

The kaiju were converging on Crait, which was close enough that the Jumphawks didn't need to carry them far before Finn started to catch glimpses of the kaiju. They were spread out along the coastline, tearing into the buildings as if they were made of sand, and carelessly tossing aside boats and shipping containers as if they weighed nothing.

Most of the battles Finn had fought were out in the ocean, far from collateral damage; the first time he'd had to take down a kaiju that had made it to a populated area, he'd nearly frozen up thinking how much damage he was causing with each step and swing. How could he claim to be helping people when he was causing so much harm himself?

 _The kaiju would do even worse damage if we let them run rampant_ , Poe reminded him, a soothing voice in his head.

 _I know_. Finn put his old memories aside and cleared his head. They were nearly at the drop point. _Let's do this_.

The Jumphawks dropped Black One right in the middle of a plaza where there was enough room for Finn and Poe to make a graceful three-point landing. Rathtar was just ahead of them, further down the street. LOCCENT had sent Black One scans of the kaiju, but images couldn't compare to seeing for themselves the gaping maw nestled in the middle of a writhing mass of tentacles. Each tentacle was long enough to wrap around Black One several times, and strong enough to tear down half a skyscraper on its own.

"What's that?" Poe zoomed in one of their cameras on something that was holding Rathtar's attention.

"That's one of the Knights of Ren," Finn said, recognising the outline of a jaeger. "We have to help them." Sure, nobody really liked them, but there were still people inside those jaegers.

"Let's get Rathtar's attention."

They fired one battery of Black One's shoulder rockets, all of them landing squarely on Rathtar's back. It whipped around, teeth gnashing as it let out a thundering roar before pushing itself off the nearest building and hurtling down the street towards them, faster than anything comprised mostly of tentacles Finn had ever seen move on land.

Since Black One was already somewhat in brace position with her right hand planted on the ground, Finn readied the left-hand chainsword while Poe dug Black One's right hand deeper into the asphalt and locked her joints to further steady their position. Just before the first of Rathtar's tentacles came within striking reach, Finn brought the chain sword up, and it scored a deep gash along Rathtar's underside.

It roared and thrashed, a solid mass of tentacles colliding with Black One and sending her flying down the street. For a moment, all Finn could see was the clear blue of the sky, then Poe was struggling to his feet and pulling Finn up with him through the Drift, and the rest of the city slowly came into view. BB-8 was somewhere in the back, beeping furiously as he tried to patch together cables that had been ripped apart or separated from their connection points. Through Poe's shared knowledge of Binary, Finn could tell the beeps didn't translate into anything complimentary.

By the time Black One was back up and ready to rejoin the fray, Blue Rapier had landed on the other side of Rathtar, electrostaff in her hands crackling with energy. She met Rathtar's leap in mid-air, staff blocking the bite it tried to take out of the conn-pod, then delivered a powerful electric shock that had the kaiju hissing and backing up a few steps.

"Ready plasmacaster!" Poe shouted even though he and Finn were already bringing up Black One's right hand and engaging the cannon.

"Aim between the back plates!" Finn wasn't sure whether he said it out loud or not, but their first shot rang true, a burst of plasma appearing on Rathtar's back as it reared up and screeched before taking off into the city.

"Blue Rapier, you take the left, we'll take the right," Poe ordered.

"Copy that," Jessika replied.

It would be easy to follow the trail of destruction that Rathtar left behind as it tore through the city, but kaiju could move faster than most jaegers, and to give chase directly would be futile. Instead, Finn took a backseat and let Poe navigate Black One through the streets—a different view from way down below, flash of black hair darting into an alley as he gave chase, laughing with carefree delight—to a large intersection next to a park.

"LOCCENT, who's got eyes on Rathtar?" Poe asked.

"It's about a hundred metres to your left," Marshal Organa replied. "Blue Rapier is closing in from its other side."

"Let her chase it here." Poe reached down into the park and closed Black One's hand around a large statue, yanking it off its base and wielding it like a spear. "Never liked this thing," he told Finn.

The ground shook as Rathtar came closer with Blue Rapier in hot pursuit, and when Rathtar burst through the building in front of Black One, Finn and Poe let the statue fly straight into its open mouth.

While Rathtar choked and spasmed, Blue Rapier leapt onto its back and jammed her electrostaff into the meaty flesh between the tentacles, and Black One deployed both chainswords, cutting through Rathar's tentacles on her way to reach its body.

As Rathtar lashed out at Black One and struggled this way and that in an effort to get Blue Rapier off its back, one of its flailing tentacles smashed clean through the lower floors of a nearby skyscraper. The rest of the building toppled over and came crashing down on all three of them.

Hunched over Rathtar, Blue Rapier took the brunt of the falling debris on her back, but Black One couldn't take cover with both her chainswords still stuck in awkward places, and glass, steel, and concrete smashed unobstructed against the conn-pod. Finn felt a sharp pain in his upper arm and looked down to assess the damage, but his drivesuit was still perfectly intact. On the other side of the conn-pod though, Poe had fallen to his knees and was clutching at his right arm.

"Poe!" Finn poured all his concentration into yanking Black One's chainswords out of Rathtar's motionless body, and took a step back from the unstable pile of rubble Blue Rapier was emerging from. Poe was still hanging on to the Drift, but Finn could feel their connection slipping away.

"Black One, you're falling out of alignment," Marshal Organa informed them.

"I know, I know," Poe gasped.

Finn wanted to go over to him, but to exit the cradle would break their connection entirely, leaving Black One helpless in the middle of the street. BB-8 rolled up to Poe, offering something from one of his many compartments.

"Thanks, buddy," Poe said as he accepted whatever it was. "Just need to wrap this up then I'll be good to go." He wound a bandage around the tear in his drivesuit, then staggered to his feet.

The neural bridge began to reform, Poe's thoughts and memories becoming clearer in Finn's mind, as did the pain from Poe's most-likely-broken arm.

"One down, three to go, right?" Poe said aloud for everyone to hear, his breath coming out in laboured pants. "Where do you want us?"

"Your vitals still look unsteady, Black One." Marshal Organa said. "We can call in an extraction for you."

Poe looked across the conn-pod at Finn. The sharp pain had subsided to an intense throbbing, bearable with the two of them sharing the burden.

"We're good to go on," Finn said.

They were reassigned to Rancor, who'd made it further inland than Rathtar and was currently grappling with Sabre Strike. Blue Rapier was dispatched back to the coastline to hold it against Voxyn and Krayt with Hevurion Grace and Yissira Zyde.

When Black One arrived on the scene, Rancor was in the process of delivering a beatdown of epic proportions to Sabre Strike. Her conn-pod window had been completely shattered, and there were gaping holes in her chassis where Kaiju Blue leaking from Rancor's open wounds had melted through the casing to expose the wires below. One unlucky hit, and Rangers Kun and Wexley could be burned alive.

Black One picked up speed, her shoulder rockets already firing to take Rancor's attention off Sabre Strike. Poe took aim with the plasmacaster to cauterise the bleeding wounds while Finn deployed the chainsword and thrust it into Rancor's side when it came within range. He then pulled the sword out and retracted it before engaging the elbow rocket to deliver a hefty punch to Rancor's face. Poe followed up with a few more blasts from the plasmacaster, not letting up until their plasma reserves were empty and Rancor was a smoking mess on the ground.

"That's two for two," Poe said with a long exhale. "Wanna go for three? If we get there quickly enough, we might be able to break the record with four."

Sabre Strike was motionless on the ground behind Rancor, but Finn could see her pilots climbing out of the conn-pod, both of them moving under their own power. With the remaining kaiju thus far being held back from entering the city, the two of them should be safe until one of the Jumphawks could land to give them a ride.

"Let's see if the others need a hand," Poe said as he and Finn turned Black One back towards the coastline. With her plasma reserves drained and rocket stores empty she wouldn't be able to provide ranged support, but she could still put up a formidable resistance up close and prevent Voxyn or Krayt from slipping past the other jaegers.

On their way, when they passed the pile of rubble under which Rathtar was buried, BB-8 suddenly burst to life in a flurry of panicked beeps.

"Slow down, buddy, we can't understand you," Poe said as Finn scanned the holographic display before them for the cause of BB-8's alarm.

No sooner had the MOVEMENT DETECTED message popped up on the screen than there was an almighty rumble behind them. They turned just in time to see Rathtar falling upon them, apparently not quite dead yet.

With its rounded body and most of its front tentacles truncated from its earlier encounter with Black One, there wasn't any good place Black One could try to grab it to stop its many rows of teeth tearing into the conn-pod. She tried anyway, but her grip faltered as the motion jarred Poe's broken arm and caused a spike of pain to flare up. Rathtar's acidic spit splattered against the cracked window of the conn-pod, some of it making its way inside and immediately eating through the steel walls and floor. Finn reared his head back, and he and Poe brought the sharp ridge atop Black One's conn-pod down to meet Rathtar's front teeth.

It hissed and adjusted its position, bringing its rear tentacles forward to wrap around Black One, preventing Finn from deploying the chainsword. Black One's right arm was free, but moving it was out of the question as Poe's broken arm had gotten bad enough that they could barely lift it even while sharing the pain.

"Vent the coolant on the left flank," Poe said through gritted teeth before calling BB-8 over to him.

Finn did so, and Rathtar released Black One almost immediately to get away from the biting cold liquid that sprayed out of the vent. Finn then readied the left-side chainsword as a numbing sensation travelled up and down his right arm, easing the pain but effectively also rendering Black One's right arm unusable.

"You doing okay over there?" Finn looked over Poe, who looked pale and unsteady, hair plastered to his forehead with sweat, but he nodded back at Finn.

"Never leave a job undone."

They propelled Black One across the street to where Rathtar had retreated, dropping down at the last minute to slide the last few metres and score the chainsword along Rathtar's already-wounded underside. It roared and thrashed, tentacles striking out at random until it managed to pin Black One's chest under one of its intact tentacles. As Finn and Poe struggled for leverage to get out from under Rathtar, another tentacle came bursting through the conn-pod window.

It slammed into the space between Finn and Poe's Drift cradles, and for a split second, Finn thought they were going to make it after all, then sharp lines of pain tore across his back as Rathtar dragged the rough edge of its tentacle through his drivesuit like it was made of paper.

"Slip!" someone was screaming with all their might. The image of Rathtar against the city backdrop blurred into waves crashing over Kowakian as Slip was yanked out of the cradle to Finn's left. The sudden disconnection from the Drift sent spasms through his body as he was forced to take the strain of the entire neural load at once.

 _Hemispheres out of alignment_ , a robotic voice coolly informed him.

"Black One, you need to reconnect!" a more frantic voice yelled, which couldn't be right since First Order command staff were trained to keep calm under all possible situations. And the callsign was wrong: Finn and Slip had been assigned Jaeger 1-3 on this mission.

"No!" someone screamed from Finn's right, another discrepancy in his reality: he always took the right and Slip the left whenever they deployed together.

Waves flooded the conn-pod and for a moment Finn couldn't breathe, then the water was rushing out again, the churning ocean outside replaced with rubble, and Kowakian's sharp angles with the amorphous mass of Rathtar.

Finn could feel a warmth start to build in his chest, and he remembered what Poe had said when he'd given Finn a tour of Black One.

_….and all that's powered by a 121X Nuclear Vortex Turbine. In a pinch, you could use it as a weapon, but…there's about a fifty-fifty chance that she'll just plain blow up, so let's try to save that for emergencies._

The heat continued to build, and Rathtar readied its tentacle for another try. Just was it was about to breach the conn-pod again, bright orange exploded across Finn's vision, the last thing he saw before everything went dark.

-

Finn came to somewhere in between breaths, his head sinking into a soft pillow while something rigid ran along the length of his back. One hand was resting on cool, crisp sheets while the other was enveloped in tight warmth. On his next breath in, he could smell the sterile, chemical scent of the infirmary with a confusing undertone of metal and oil. He opened his eyes.

"Hey, buddy." Flyaway locks of dark hair curled over warm brown eyes that crinkled in the corners with a tired smile.

"Poe," Finn croaked out, barely able to make a sound.

"Here, let me get you some water." Poe left Finn's line of sight but quickly returned with a glass and a straw that he pressed against Finn's lips.

"We made it?" Finn had to ask after his throat was no longer so dry it hurt to speak.

"We made it," Poe confirmed. "The marshal had to send in an emergency evac for us, but we took down Rathtar, properly this time, and the others were able to take care of Voxyn and Krayt. Mission accomplished, even if we didn't break any records."

Finn looked over at him properly for the first time since waking up. Poe's right arm was in a sling and there was a collection of cuts and bruises across his face, but he was alive. They both were.

Finn let out a sigh of relief. "I thought—"

"Me too. When I saw…" Poe shook his head. "It was your memory, but I was the one who chased the RABIT and brought us out of alignment. If you hadn't held on, I don't think we would have survived."

Finn's eyelids drooped, and the darkness waiting behind them presented him with another crystal-clear replay of Slip being ripped out of the conn-pod. It was like five years ago all over again, every waking and sleeping moment consumed by the biggest failure of his life.

Then Poe squeezed his hand, and the images disappeared. Finn opened his eyes.

"I'm here." Poe shifted even closer towards the bed and laid his head down next to Finn's. "We'll get through this together. We're going to be okay."

It had to be the first time someone had said something like that to Finn, and he knew it was definitely the first time he would have believed them. He nodded and squeezed Poe's hand back, and the remnants of the Drift sparked between them, familiar and comforting.


End file.
